Analysts on WPP: 'expected bad, got worse'

Ian Whittaker, media analyst at Liberum, recommended WPP as a buy despite the company's half-year results being "likely to disappoint".

WPP's top-line weakness, Whittaker said, is partly driven by FMCG giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever cutting marketing spend over the last year, a situation which Liberum believes will reverse.

"For instance, recent comments from Unilever suggest that the structural pressures have been over-emphasised," Whittaker said. "We reiterate, particularly for longer-term investors, the current de-ratings offer an excellent buying opportunity. Additionally, WPP is poised to benefit from net new business wins in 2018, with early signs of this already coming through."

Investec, whose note was headlined "expected bad, got worse", said WPP's disclosure today was "not a complete surprise" given recent warnings by Dentsu and Interpublic, but reiterated that the company's like-for-like figures were "poor", with the second quarter below forecast.

Meanwhile, Numis said WPP's earnings per share of 45.4p fell slightly below its upper-end forecast and for 2018 has lowered its WPP net sales forecast for 2018 from +3% to +2%, both on like-for-like and reported basis.

Paul Richards, media analyst at Numis, added: "The group reiterates its margin guidance for 30bp, while we view both the dividend increase (+16% to 22.7p) and progress on buybacks as indicative of long-term confidence in the group's prospects."